More than simply a study of the mafia, Alfredo Schulte-Bockholt's work argues that collaboration between political science and criminology is critical to understanding the real nature of organized crime and its power. Schulte-Bockholt looks at specific case studies from Asia, Latin America, and Europe as he develops a theoretical discussion - drawing on the thought of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Antonio Gramsci - of the intimate connections between criminal groups and elite structures. Ranging from an historical discussion of the world drug economy to an examination of the evolution...

With the Bolsheviks already in power in Russia after the 1917 revolution, Germany's new socialist government following its own revolution was faced with a problem. To take the same path as the Russians, completely stripping the old upper classes of all their power could be a disaster in an advanced industrial country like Germany. Worse, for Rosa Luxemburg, socialist revolutionary and anti-war campaigner, now the new Chancellor of Germany, to end the war by accepting an armistice from the Allies would also mean surrendering to the Capitalists. The only solution was to continue the conflict,...